Introduction : In AX 2012R3 Commerce Data Exchange, Async Server is a part of the asynchronous system that shares data between the Microsoft Dynamics AX database and channel databases. Async Server is installed at headquarters and communicates with Microsoft Dynamics AX. In addition to Async Server, Commerce Data Exchange includes Commerce Data Exchange: Async Client, which is installed at channels and communicates with the channel database. Below are the steps which need to follow: Step 1: Start Microsoft Dynamics AX Setup. Under Install, select Microsoft Dynamics AX components. Advance through the first wizard pages. If the Setup Support files have not yet been installed on this computer, the Select a file location page is displayed. The Setup Support files are required for installation. Provide a file location or accept the default location, and then click Next. On the Ready to install page, click Install. Step 2: On the Select installation type page, click Custom installation, and then click Next. On the Select components page, select Async Server, and then click Next. Step 3: Prerequisite validation results page, resolve any errors. For more information about how to resolve prerequisite errors. When no errors remain, click Next. Step 4 : Configure Async Server page, select the check box to configure Async Server by using Setup. If you clear this check box, the application files are installed, but Async Server is not configured. If you’re configuring Async Server, enter the following information: Application name – The name of the web application that hosts Async Server. App pool name – The name of the application pool that the web application runs under. Website name – The name of the website that Async Server runs on. User name and Password– The credentials for the application pool identity. HTTPS port – The port on which Async Server receives HTTPS requests. You can specify any available port. Verify that the port is open in Windows Firewall, and record the port number. The port is used to create the URL for Async Server in the following format: https://<server name>:port/<web application name>. This URL is required when you configure instances of Async Client that connect to this instance of Async Server. TCP port (optional) – The port on which Async Server receives TCP requests. Specify a TCP port if your environment uses high-performance data synchronization. You can specify any available port. Verify that the port is open in Windows Firewall. AOS service user – The user account that the instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX Application Object Server (AOS) runs as. SSL certificate thumbprint – The thumbprint for the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption certificate. You must obtain a valid, registered certificate from a provider. Step 5: Select Server Name and Message Database Name. if DataBase does not exit then mention the Name. Setup will create the database. Step 6: the Prerequisite validation results page, resolve any errors. For more information about how to resolve prerequisite errors. When no errors remain, click Next. Step 7: Click on Install button. Conclusion: By following above steps, you can install Async Server for Retail HQ.

Introduction: Finally, one of the most sought after feature is here in the D365 July 2017 Update. The Multi-Select Option Set! A new attribute type added to D365, you can now create Multi-Level OptionSets in D365. Creating a Multi Select OptionSet: A new attribute type is now available that lets you create Multi-Select Option Set. 1. When you create a new field, you’ll see an option to create a Multi-Select Option Set. 2. Here, I’m creating an Option Set for choice of Subjects for Newsletter Company. I’ve named the field as Subjects and I’ll let users select which all subjects is a particular customer interested in in the Enrollment entity. 3. The Multi-Select Option Set looks like a usual option set and my options look like this 4. And I’ll add the same in my form as well and Publish all my changes. Using Multi-Select Option Set: Below is how you can select multiple values in the Multi-Select Option Set. Once on the form, here’s how you can use the Multi Select Option Sets 1. They come with auto-complete feature, so you can start typing the options and they will show up 2. Now, I have selected 3 options namely Technical, History and Science and my subject of interests. 3. Once selected, they appear separated by semicolon (;) And I’ll save the record. Multi Select Option Set on Views: You can see selected values in the Multi-Select Option Sets on the entity views as well. Some Features: Below are the features of the Multi-Select Option Sets Auto-complete the results. Can hold up to 150 values Can be used in Advanced Find as well as FetchXML queries. Hope this was helpful!  

Introduction: While using Fetchxml queries to retrieve more than 5000 records, first page will give you 5000 records and paging cookie. Paging cookie will help to retrieve additional records. For additional records, we need to set the paging cookie in the fetch tag. Setting the paging cookie: When the fetch query is executed it brings the paging- cookie with it in the resultant response. The paging cookie is attached to the next Fetch XML The paging cookie consists of the first and last record details. Name and the GUID of the records. When trying to execute fetch XML request. it started throwing “Page Cookie Malformed” exception. This is because there is a special character present in the paging Cookie. You can see in the above cookie that Name has “&amp;” which is the replacement for character “&”. This breaks the fetchXml request.There can be any character present in the record name such as (‘s). Even (‘) breaks the fetch XML. Thus, we need to encode the paging-cookie before it is inserted in fetchXml. pageCokies.replace(/&amp;/g, ‘&amp;amp;’); This will help to solve the issue and we can retrieve more than 5000 records.

In this blog, we will see how can we upgrade the D365 online Portal to v8.3 and what are the new features that are available in this upgrade. Pre-Requisites: D365 CRM Portals D365 CRM Environment Overview: The new version 8.3 for D365 online Portals is made available in the July update provided by Microsoft. Along with the new version of portals there are some amazing new features and functionality changes which are mentioned below. User has now control over the time setting as to when was the portal upgraded Administrative wizard tile is added to the Portal module in CRM. User can now clear cache from the portal to improve the performance We will now see how the user has to upgrade the portal to the new v8.3 in the following process Process: Step 1: The user will have to go the Instance page of the Dynamics 365 Administration Center. In the Instance page click on the edit button to the side of ‘Solutions’ as shown below. Step 2: In the list of Managed solutions for the user’s organization, if the portal hasn’t been upgraded the user will see ‘Upgrade Available’ for the portal if installed previously as shown below On the left, we can see the details of the upgrade that will be applied to the existing portal solution. Click on the Upgrade button as shown to initiate the upgrading process. Step 3: On clicking on the Upgrade button user will get a prompt for Terms and Service click on ‘Upgrade’ to Proceed as shown below The user will have to wait for the upgradation process to complete. Once the upgradation process is complete, the user can check the current version of the portal by going to the following link: https://[portaladdress].microsoftcrmportals.com/_services/about. If the user has the v8.3 portals along with admin sign in can view more details of the portals  

Introduction: In this blog, we will see how can we use the new feature of the ‘Administrative wizard’ for the D365 Online Portals Pre-Requisites: 1. D365 CRM Portals 2. D365 CRM Environment Overview In the new update of D365 Online Portal for v8.3, a new feature has been introduced which is the ‘Administrative wizard’ which enables the user to customize the portal by allowing to add an entity to the portal. The user needs to decide as to which entity (i.e. a custom entity or an out of box entity) is to be added prior before adding it to the portal The administrative wizard enables the user to also add entity components like entity form, list, web pages etc. Scenario: In the following scenario, we will add a custom entity with a form and view which is configured prior to the process of adding it to the portal. Process: Step 1: To initiate the process, the user will have to navigate to Portal > Administration > Portal Management as shown below. This will start the administrative wizard. Note: The ‘Portal Management’ Tile is only visible for 8.3v of D365 Online Portals. Step 2: Now select ‘Create Portal Content’ from the two options under Portal Management as shown below. A dialog box will appear after selecting the above mentioned option which will allow the user to create a web page and to display a entity which is optional depending on the requirements of the user. Step 3: In the dialog box the user will have to enter the following details like the name of the portal website, page name, title, layout and partial URL. Select the publishing state as ‘Published’ as shown below. The user can get additional options on enabling the entity in the page by changing the value of the ‘Display Organization entity in the portal’ to ‘Yes’ which is ‘No’ by default. On selecting Yes the following options appear as shown below: 1. The user can select the entity from which he would want to use a particular view. 2. Select the view that is to be displayed. 3. Finally select the Form that is to be displayed. The user wants can allow record creation and anonymous access by toggling on the options to ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Once all the details have been entered click on the create button to the bottom of the dialog box. Step 4: The user will be automatically redirected to the Portal> Web Page option in CRM where a Web Page is created which consists of the entity list details entered in the previous step. In the Child page section will include the create, edit and details web pages with entity forms associated with it as shown below. Conclusion: Thus, by using administrative tool we can create and expose entity information effortlessly and easily on the D365 Online Portal.

Introduction: This blog explains how to set Customer Type field in D365 Javascript Web API. Problem Statement: We get error while setting value of Account lookup on Contact in D365 Javascript Web API as below: “An undeclared property ‘customerid’ which only has property annotations in the payload but no property value was found in the payload. In OData, only declared navigation properties and declared named streams can be represented as properties without values.” Solution: We can achieve this functionality by adding suffix entity name to the schema name of the field. Steps of Implementation: Below code demonstrates how to set Account on Contact. entity[“parentcustomerid_account@odata.bind”] = “/accounts(” + Account_GUID + “)”; Below code demonstrates how to set Contact on Contact. entity[“parentcustomerid_contact@odata.bind”] = “/contacts(” + Contact_GUID + “)”; Note: This issue arises when lookup attribute of the entity can accept multiple types of entity references below are common examples 1. Customer on Incident 2. Customer on Contact 3. Customer type field on Custom Entity. Conclusion: We can resolve issue for setting Customer type field in Javascript D365 Web API by adding suffix entity name to the schema name of the field.

Introduction: Sometime it requires us to update only certain records which satisfies condition. so how to update those records all at once. Description: We had a requirement where we wanted to change the status of all the record of lead which are in New status. We need to follow below steps to achieve this. Make sure that your search field is added on Quick find view of that entity, otherwise you will not find the record in quick find view. in our case it is lead entity. Added the column status. Save and publish your customization after adding the column. Let’s go the home page of lead entity and search by putting criteria “new”, it will list down all the records which matches the condition. Now you have all the records that matches the condition of new means these records are newly created. Now click and edit in online excel as shown. Now you can edit any column listed. In our case I have changed the status from new to approved of two records, as it shows it is processing two records as shown. Record is updated/ failed in system you can see it as shown below. You can open and see the changes in that records. Hope this helps you while doing bulk update for the records based on condition.

This blog consists of steps to add an external link to navigation bar in the application using new sitemap editor in Dynamics 365. Steps to be followed are given below: Create an HTML Web Resource in CRM consisting of below code. <html> <body> <script> //open link in new window window.open(“https://www.google.com”); </script> </body> </html> Open the sitemap editor and add a new subarea and the created web resource into your sitemap Publish your configurations and click on Google Search in the Navigation to check the results: Behaviour: On click on the link, the link opens in the new tab.

Introduction: Real-time Service is an integrated service that provides real-time communication between Microsoft Dynamics AX and retail channels. Real-time Service enables individual point of sale (POS) computers and online stores to retrieve certain data from Microsoft Dynamics AX in real time. Redeem loyalty points Issue and redeem credit memos Create and update customer records Create, update, and complete sales orders Receive inventory against a purchase order or transfer order Perform inventory counts In AX 2012 R3, Real-time Service is a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service that must be installed on a website in Internet Information Services (IIS). 1. Run AX 2012 R3 Setup. 2. Select Microsoft Dynamics AX Components. 3. Select “I accept licence Terms” and click on Next button. 4. Click on Add or modify components. And click on next button. 5. In Add or Modify Component list. Select “Real time Service” under Commerce Data Exchange. And Click on Next button. 6. Setup will check prerequisite components for Real Time Service. (Note: – Make sure that there should not be any error). Once its Done , click on next button. 7. In Below Screen you have to configure below parameter. ( this is most IMP Steps) Application name – The name of the web application that hosts Real-time Service. Website name – The name of the website that hosts Real-time Service. App pool name – The name of the application pool that Real-time Service runs in. User name and Password – The credentials for the application pool identity. HTTPS port – The port on which Real-time Service receives secure HTTP requests. You can specify any available port. Verify that the port is open in Windows Firewall. TCP port – The port on which Real-time Service receives TCP requests. You can specify any available port. Verify that the port is open in Windows Firewall. SSL certificate thumbprint – The thumbprint for your Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption certificate. You must obtain a valid, registered certificate from a provider. 8. Setup will re-validate the Prerequisite components as per configuration. Once it’s Done click on Next button. 9. Real time service is now ready to install. Click on Install button to start the installation. 10. Once Installation is done below screen will appear. 11. After this close all the window. And go services. In Services you can able to see Microsoft Dynamics AX Commerce Data Exchange : Real-time Service.  

Problem Statement: We often encounter a scenario where we need to perform some operations based on the fact if the user has a particular security role. We also know that the GUID of a custom security role created by us remains the same, even if is installed in some other environment. Consider the following scenario: I want to check if the logged in User has “Custom View Only Role”, I want to hide some fields on the form. Also, the role – “Custom View Only Role” is created by me. Common Solution: For the above problem, this is how a developer would proceed: Get the GUID of the security role, and hardcode it for checking. Get all the User roles of the logged in user. Iterate on all the roles and check if any of the roles from the user roles match the GUID of the “Custom View Only Role”. If any match, then returns true and based on this perform the required operation – in this case, hide some fields. This is how the code would look: function CheckUserRole() {     // GUID of the custom role that you created.     var CustomViewOnlyRoleId = “XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX”;     // Get all the roles of the Logged in User.     var currentUserRoles = Xrm.Page.context.getUserRoles();     for (var i = 0; i < currentUserRoles.length; i++) {         var userRoleId = currentUserRoles[i];         if (userRoleId.toLowerCase() == CustomViewOnlyRoleId.toLowerCase()) {             // Return true if the Role matches             return true;         }     }     return false; } Issues with the above Solution This will only work if the D365/ CRM Organization has only root Business Unit and no child business units It will fail if there are any child BUs and the logged in user is in any of the Child BU and also has the “Custom View Only Role”. In this case, the function will return false, even though the User had the role Why this happens: This happens because, in CRM, a copy of all the roles is created for each BU. So the GUID of all the same role within Different BU will be different. Alternative Solution: We can check with Role name instead of GUID, and tweak the above code. But checking with Role names is not a good practice since the role names can be changed in the future. Better Solution Since the issue is with copy of the same role for different BU, we can solve this by leveraging the “Parent root role id” There is a field on the Role entity called Parent Root Role. This stores the reference of the Root role on all the copies of each BU role. So even though the role ids will not be same, the Parent Root Role Id will be same for all the copies. Below is the code to leverage the parent role id and check if the logged in user has the role using the Role GUID. You can also find this code in My Github function CheckUserRole() {     // GUID of the custom role that you created.     var CustomViewOnlyRoleId = “XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX”;     var returnValue = false;     // Get all the roles of the Logged in User.     var currentUserRoles = Xrm.Page.context.getUserRoles();     // Get the Parent roles for each, and then compare.     GetParentRoles(currentUserRoles, function (result) {         for (var i = 0; i < result.value.length; i++) {             if (result.value[i][“_parentrootroleid_value”].toLowerCase() == CustomViewOnlyRoleId.toLowerCase())                 returnValue = true;                    }     }, function (error) {         alert(error);     }     );     return returnValue; } function GetParentRoles(roles, successCallback, errorCallback) {     var fetchXml = ”;     fetchXml += ‘<fetch version=”1.0″ output-format=”xml-platform” mapping=”logical” distinct=”false”>’;     fetchXml += ‘<entity name=”role”>’;     fetchXml += ‘   <attribute name=”name” />’;     fetchXml += ‘   <attribute name=”businessunitid” />’;     fetchXml += ‘   <attribute name=”roleid” />’;     fetchXml += ‘   <attribute name=”parentrootroleid” />’;     fetchXml += ‘   <order attribute=”name” descending=”false” />’;     fetchXml += ‘   <filter type=”or”>’;     for (var cnt = 0; cnt < roles.length; cnt++) {         fetchXml += ‘       <condition attribute=”roleid” operator=”eq” value=”{‘ + roles[cnt] + ‘}” />’;     }     fetchXml += ‘   </filter>’;     fetchXml += ‘</entity>’;     fetchXml += ‘</fetch > ‘;     MK.WebAPI.Retrieve(“roles”, null, fetchXml, null, successCallback, errorCallback, true, null, null, false); } In case of queries or feedback, please comment on the post below.